[StBernard] Final section of the city should get water service by Oct. 20

[Westley Annis]

Safe drinking water should be flowing to the northern section of the Lower
9th Ward by Oct. 20, restoring the most basic public service to the last
remaining sliver of the city without potable water. 

Preliminary tests by the Sewerage & Water Board show that water pressure in
the area has reached an adequate, sustainable level, and that the water's
chemical composition is not harmful for drinking, cooking or bathing, agency
spokesman Robert Jackson said Friday. 

Based on those results, S&WB officials expect that barring unusual problems,
such as a busted water main, the state's Department of Health and Hospitals
will "certify" the water as safe for everyday use sometime in the next two
weeks, he said. The affected area is bounded by North Derbigny Street,
Florida Avenue, the Industrial Canal and the St. Bernard Parish line. 
"We've done preliminary tests, and it's now in the hands of the state,"
Jackson said. "Hopefully we'll hear something late next week, barring any
out-of-the-ordinary problems." 

Residents of the northern swath of the Lower 9th Ward, arguably the section
of the city hardest hit by the flood, have protested for months that without
full water service, they have been exiled from their neighborhood. 

Though water has been available at their lots for several months, dozens of
fractured subterranean pipes have resulted in inconsistent water pressure,
making state certification impossible. FEMA will not install travel trailers
on private property if the lot cannot receive potable water. 

Tanya Harris, a leader of the local ACORN community action group, said
Friday that she was thrilled with the news, which comes 10 days after S&WB
officials initiated a series of face-to-face meetings with neighbors to
detail the agency's efforts to restore water service. Water board directors
last month ordered administrators to provide such updates after residents
complained that they had witnessed little work being done in the area. 

Harris said ACORN now will turn its attention to other issues critical to
the recovery of the Lower 9th Ward, including the restoration of electrical
power by Entergy New Orleans to a six-by-nine block area immediately west of
the Industrial Canal. 

"We want to make sure all the right-of-return issues are taken care of, and
the one thing left is getting electricity back in that area closest to the
breach," she said. 

Also on their agenda is reopening the Lower 9th Ward campus of Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr. Charter School for Science and Technology, which has been
operating at a Central City site this semester, and fighting expected rate
hikes for homeowners insurance and residential electricity. 

"That's going to price a lot of people out," Harris said. "People are not
going to be able to live in the homes that they own."
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So if this was a reason FEMA was putting non-SBP residents in SBP parks
there will be no more reason for it.